Cable operators have widely deployed high-speed data services on cable television systems. These data services allow subscriber-side devices, such as personal computers, to communicate over an ordinary cable TV network through a cable modem. The cable modem communicates with a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS), which connects the cable TV network to a data network, such as the Internet.
Modular CMTSs (M-CMTSs) have been developed to improve scaling and for other reasons. These modular systems typically include an M-CMTS core device implementing a subset of Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) protocols (such as Media Access Control (MAC) layer, etc.) and one or more remote PHYs such as an Edge Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (EQAM) implementing the remaining DOCSIS protocols (such as the PHYsical layer (PHY), etc.) These EQAMs generally include modulation devices for modulating downstream traffic to the cable modems or demodulation devices for demodulating upstream traffic from the cable modems. The M-CMTS core and the EQAMs use a Downstream External Physical Interface (DEPI) and Upstream External Physical Interface (UEPI) to transport downstream user data and upstream user data respectively.
These M-CMTS cores and EQAMs generally communicate with each other over an Internet Protocol/Multi-Protocol Label Switching (IP/MPLS) network to establish the DEPI and the UEPI tunnels. It is desirable to provide the M-CMTS core with some control over the network resources used by the DEPI while reserving EQAM resources. The disclosure that follows enables such a control and solves other problems.